Traffic surges on teeming freeways and surface streets. Markets buzz as goods and currency exchange. Sidewalks swarm with brisk footsteps closing in on assorted destinations. Restaurants clatter with the sounds of food preparation and conversation.
It is the bustle of everyday life being lived. Then…
… a siren blasts.
Conversations cease.
Pedestrians stand still.
Traffic comes to a stop.
Drivers and passengers emerge. Next to their vehicles, they stand.
But for the siren, a hush falls over the nation.
For two minutes the siren bellows. For two minutes all Israel stops.
They stand in respect and honor of the six million Jewish People who died in the Holocaust.
And the heroes who resisted their tormentors. And those who survived.
In Tel Aviv, Israel, after a siren sounds at 11:00 a.m. on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israelis stand still for two minutes in remembrance of Holocaust victims. Image: Copyright 2015 AP Images
It is Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. At 11:00 a.m. on the 27th day of the month of Nissan, the siren sounds and Israel stands still to remember The Catastrophe, the Ha-Shoah.
Many countries of the world have a national Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israel’s Yom HaShoah falls one week after the end of Passover. The full name – Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah – means “Day of (remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism” (Jewish Virtual Library). On the Gregorian calendar, this year’s Yom HaShoah is from sundown on Wednesday April 15 to sunset on April 16th. A siren will blare to begin the memorial day on Wednesday and again at 11:00 a.m. for two minutes of remembrance on the 16th.
Millions of people were targeted for extinction by Hitler’s diabolical arrogance and madness during World War II. Jewish People were among the chief victims of the atrocities ravaged upon those deemed undesirable or “less than.” Six million Jews perished as a result of inhuman treatment, starvation, torture, and execution by the Nazi regime.
Today, 70 years after tormented and emaciated Jews were liberated from horrific death camps, some in the world deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Anti-Semitic and anti-Israel proponents have the audacity to say the Holocaust is something Jewish People made up to gain sympathy and acquire a homeland. However, there has always been vast and incontrovertible evidence of the Holocaust. “Holocaust deniers” are in denial of reality.
Winston Churchill noted the importance of remembrance when he quoted George Santayana, who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (National Winston Churchill Museum).
And so, we remember. Israel remembers. The world remembers. So that it will never again happen.
To discover more about the Holocaust, Israel’s birth as a nation, and personal stories of Holocaust survivors, visit the following pages of the Jewish Voice web store:
Rose Price: Holocaust, Journey to Forgiveness
Hitler, God, and the Bible, by Ray Comfort
To keep up with Middle East news affecting Israel, sign up to receive our weekly Insider’s Insights. Visit the Jewish Voice Ministries website and click on the “Sign up for email updates” tab in the very top right corner.
The following is excerpted and condensed from the booklet Shabbat: A Sacred Rhythm of Rest, by Jewish Voice Ministries International.
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